Organizational memory: a new perspective on the organizational buying process

Abstract

Although there is increasing interest in the organizational learning process appearing in the marketing literature, there is relatively little research that relates these concepts to the organizational buying process. In particular, the concepts involving organizational memory may provide a new perspective on the information search activities of organizational buyers. We provide a brief background on organizational memory and propose a conceptual framework to delineate key variables and relationships. Using two company case studies, we provide examples of eight buying situations defined by differing levels of complexity, physical memory, and cognitive memory and discuss the implications for information search and the type of judgment used.